164 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. X.—B. S. 
newspapers had reporters on board, who, after par¬ 
taking of all the good things, the ice, the wines, the 
champagne, and the French cookery, an accumulation 
of presents from all sides, must needs go and publish 
the whole proceedings. It was certainly too had of 
them. 
Captain Dow having kindly asked me to he his 
guest during my stay at Panama, I returned once 
more on hoard the ‘ Guatemala,’ from the anchorage 
of which off Flaminco one could plainly see the ruins 
of Old Panama, the famous old city destroyed by the 
buccaneers. u Fine old ruins, that,” I said in order to 
say something to the midshipman who took me off to 
H.M.S. Herald when I first joined her. “Very,” re¬ 
plied my brother-in-law that was to he, “ hut dreadfully 
out of repair.” Indeed they are dreadfully out of re¬ 
pair, hut they will yet hang together some time longer, 
reminding us of the strange story connected with them.. 
With the reader’s permission, I will here once more telL 
that story, as it appeared in. the second edition of my 
‘ History of the Isthmus of Panama ’ (Panama: Boyd 
Brothers, 1868, 8vo), the materials for which were 
collected from every available source during my re¬ 
peated visits to the country between 1846-49. 
